WFB Deja Vu Review: Supernatural 9.14, “Captives”
Nightsky is out of town today, so I get to compile today’s review of the repeat “Captives.” Considering I was in a plane last night coming home from San Diego when the episode aired, I’ll leave the comments to the experts that actually watched the episode. And did I get comments!
First though, a personal message. I got an email from a long time follower of this site that went weeks totally infuriated that we had chosen the name “Gang Bang” for our rewatch series. She went on to explain it’s completely offensive that we chose that name when one in five women are raped in this country. She demanded to know why we were so insensitive. Well, I probably can’t give a good answer for that.
While social issues like that are important to some people, it never occurred to us that it would be a huge problem. Is that being insensitive? No. It means that this particular problem hasn’t impacted any of our lives fortunately. To be honest, we barely have time to get articles out, let alone go through each one and wonder who we might offend. In this case, we don’t know how many people had an issue with this. No one had spoken up before now. But one is enough for us, and we take such pleas very seriously, so I’m changing the series name. I extend my sincerest apology, but just take it to be nothing more than a set of writers that were just trying something different.
After a group discussion Nate Winchester came up with our new title. “Deja Vu Review.” So that’s what it’s going to be. So here’s the “Deja Vu Review” for “Captives.”
Nightsky
I need to keep my observations short this week, but a few things struck me about “Captives”.
Overall, I really liked this episode. I very, very much enjoyed seeing Kevin again. I’m not sure if it was a case of art imitating life, or life imitating art, but much the same as Osric has always strongly identified with fans, Kevin spoke with the voice of Supernatural’s fandom. Osric considers himself to be equal parts actor and fan. Even at a venue as crazy as ComicCon, Osric sat in the audience with fans, and asked his question of the panel from the fan microphone. He interacts with fans at conventions, at viewing parties and on-line. Yes, he is “one of the boys” but he is also “one of the fans”. In last night’s episode, Kevin was also able to represent both the view of someone inside Sam and Dean’s lives and the view of the fans watching the show. Dean showed Mrs. Tran all of Kevin’s belongings, calling them the “tools of a hunter” (or words to that effect), yet the promise that Kevin asked of Sam and Dean was exactly what every fan would have said to these fictional characters, given the chance. “Get over it!”, “This fighting is stupid!” “Talk to each other!”. Kevin always put the boys in their place (especially Dean), speaking with irreverence and a practical impartiality that only comes from one’s long-time best friends. Neither Sam nor Dean listened to him, but at least we got to hear someone tell these brothers that they needed to get their act together.

I was also struck by the theme of guilt that laced this episode. Dean and Sam both expressed guilt over Kevin’s death; Kevin felt terrible about leaving his mom; and Cas apologized to a tombstone (representing the angel that died) for his part in plunging the angels into chaos and starting the angel war. I know this show was obvioulsy titled “Captives” because of Kevin being trapped in the veil and Mrs. Tran being held prisoner by Crowley, but the episode was also about everyone being held captive by their guilt. Kevin’s guilt was alleviated by freeing his mother and ending the circumstances he regretted. Castiel will be the next person to let go of his guilt by again, “fixing his mess” when he triumphs over Metatron and returns the angels to Heaven. I also believe he forgave himself for his mistakes long before his outward redemption. Unfortunately, Sam and Dean are both still seeking their redemption. I expect, and hope, that is the primary theme of
season 10. They need to forgive themselves and each other and shed the debilitating guilt that is crushing them.
Random Thoughts:
I loved that the boys took a Ouija board with them to contact Candy. That was such a nice nod to continuity of how Sam talked to Dean when Dean was a spirit.
Our twitter “gang” got into a long discussion as to whether all demons can disparate, i.e. fly. It started when I questioned whether Candy had any chance of getting away from her captors, thinking the demon holding her could just “appear” in front of her wherever she ran to. I have always held the belief that all demons had this ability, but they may not have used it in front of us in the scenes depicted on screen. I am not talking about “smoking out” of a possessed vessel. I am referring to making that vessel disappear and reappear at will. Can you help us figure out the canon on this? Every major demonic character I could think of had demonstrated this teleportation ability. Can you think of an exception? Some of us suggested it may be an ability you have to “learn”, much the same as ghosts have to learn how to touch material things and talk to the living. If so, only the older demons would have this trick. Can you remember someone who specifically
said they could not move in this way?
Bookdal
It’s no secret that my favorite writer is Bob Berens so I gush on his episodes. That said, let’s take a step back and consider the various readings that can be taken from this episode. First, of course, there is Sam and Dean and their deteriorating relationship. I have often joked that Sam and Dean are going through a rough spot in their marriage, and that is a joke, but in part it is true. Their long term partnership is wearing the weight of its longetivity and what was once acceptable behavior is now being reevaluated and challenged, especially by Sam. In my generous reading of Season 9, which you’ll only get on odd days with partial blue moons, I can see how the season tries to get the brothers to reflect on the damage they do to each other and how their relationship damages others. I get that. I still think it’s bad pacing for the season and the structuring of the episodes have been horrific, but I get it.
Second there is Castiel and I believe Berens does well with Castiel. Really well. Again that said, let me unpack my resistance to the angel storyline (besides it being redundant). Part of what I resist happened in this episode. Once upon a time the angels had gravitas – they posed a real danger to the world with their unchecked power and privilege. And the show, even under Kripke’s hand, always read the angels as an political and economic allegory. The angels were “men and women in black”. Zach conceived of himself as a mid level manager on the rise. Etc. and so on. But that allegory often stayed in the background in seasons 4 and 5 – it added a dimension to their characters, to heaven, but it was not the driving force of how we, as the viewers, understood the angels. Sometime in season 6 that changed – I can pinpoint the moment, in my mind, when it changed. It was the confrontation between Castiel and Raphael in the library/den. That, for me, is when the heaven storyline lost its depth and became a blatant and superficial political critique. And little has been done to bring back depth to that story so it’s not a surprise that Bartholomew is an uninteresting character who I feel died too suddenly and hence represented again the problem of the angels. It’s not that they fell. It’s that they never ascended past superficial. In other words, I didn’t care about the penitents or the Bartholomew crew and the show has done little to make me care.

Finally, the Trans. This is where the weight of the episode was its most brilliant in my mind. Lauren Tom delivered well her performance as did Chau. Berens, in both this episode and the later episode “Alex, Annie, Alexis, Anne” (sorry if I flipped the names), demonstrates an understanding to one important dynamic to the show and to the Winchester brotherhood – that of parent/child. In a way, Linda Tran echoed Dean in her unwillingness to let her son go and to suffer the consequences of that choice, especially in that end scene when she is warned what could and what probably will happen to Kevin’s spirit. It echoes other scenes for Dean as well – the Yellow Eyed Demon warning Dean he may not have brought back all of Sam or perhaps a different Sam, Death warning Dean that the wall may not hold, etc. and so on. I don’t think the echo is intentional but I think Berens has a substantial intuition from his reading of the show as to how important the parent/child analogy informs the Winchester brotherhood. Not all of it, mind you, but it is a dimension that we can’t ignore and the Trans provide a slightly distorted mirror for us to use on Sam and Dean.
So those are my overall thoughts….quickly written, hopefully with minimal error.
Gerry
My takeaway: I liked a lot of things about this episode, but the dialogue was not among them. From the clunky exposition in the opening graveyard scene (poor guest actor, he did his best) to forced references like “Resistance is futile,” it just didn’t flow.
But writer Robert Berens got a lot right. I liked the way Mrs. Tran echoed Dean’s sentiments when she said her job was to look after Kevin because he is her son. Sam isn’t exactly Dean’s son, but that strong parental bond is there.
I liked all the foreshadowing of Demon Dean. “Me and Crowley, we’re tight now.” Yep, and it’s not leading anywhere good, Dean.

This I think is the last episode we see Dean as fully himself. Last episode, we saw him judging the Fish Taco harshly, but he still felt like Dean. This episode, when Sam walks away from him after Kevin’s speech, I think we see Dean accept that Sam truly meant what he said in “The Purge” and give in to loneliness. And the sad part is Sam’s hesitation at the door signals he’s still angry but struggling with whether to keep Dean at a distance. He doesn’t yet know Dean is losing himself to the Mark.
I can’t help but point out that it might have served the story better if the camera had followed Sam into his room, rather than into Dean’s. Or maybe found a way to linger on both.
I think this episode did a great job laying out Castiel’s arc. Bart gives Cas the same choice with an angel that Metatron will later do with Dean: kill him to prove your loyalty. Cas makes the same choice as he will later: no, I won’t kill. Cas doesn’t kill the hapless angel; he doesn’t kill Dean and he doesn’t kill Metatron. This is the true way he is a leader – showing angels they have a choice, leading by example.
Lauren Tom did a great job as usual with Mrs. Tran. She sold me on her grief and her anger. I wouldn’t mess with Kevin’s mom. Her scene with Sam where he wordlessly conveyed Kevin’s fate was very sad. I wasn’t a huge fan of Mrs. Tran killing the demon so ruthlessly – there’s most likely a human still alive in the meatsuit—but she looked truly fierce. And her journey is a microcosm of how Sam and Dean got so jaded as hunters. Pain, loss,cynicism, anger – these emotions will scare you.
Nate Winchester
Oh captives… “Then” demonstrates so much “telling” instead of showing.
· Ok I do like Sam picking up the sword. They should use the Bunker Armory more often.
· The funeral scene bugs me. “Oh here’s this awesome person, but you’ll never see them.”
· So sam waits by a coffee maker, not bothering with the ouja board LIKE WHEN DEAN WAS DEAD!
· Other problem with this season? the boys spent more time talking alone than to anyone else.
· Seriously, Cas & the boys really do seem like they’re in two different shows this episode.
· “what’d you bring” -well CLEARLY NOT A OUJA BOARD!
· So Cas & Bart routed Rapheal, but in the end Cas was desperate enough to open purgatory?
· It’s kind of sad it took a personal visit for Sam & Dean to go investigating a demon kidnapping ring
· So they made Buddy Boyle a vessel? Where’s that guy? He would have made a better villain than Bart.
· So now the angel factions are “racing” to find metatron? But Met has to hire Cas to be an enemy? Nothing in S9 made sense.
· As soon as an extra gets line Sam & Dean should throw holy water in his/her face.
· At times I wonder why the boys just don’t were helmets everywhere.
· Hunt for Metatron – they only use map of USA. Could have thrown up a world map just to expand the world.
· Sam uses a multitool to snap open an elec box rather than JUST unscrewing it???
· Would have been hilarious if the young demon knocked out Dean, locked up Sam, THEN RAN LIKE HELL!
· “you killed Maleki for his grace” -Hang on Cas, that’s a good point. Answer the question.
· Quick Cas, take Bart’s grace! Then he’s not dead but no longer a threat.
· “Take me to my son” -Dean pulls out bottle of ashes. “here you go”
· I would like to know more about Kevin’s father. My headcanon? He was the next-2-last MoL who died for the cause.
· *see’s rebecca’s picture* Dang, the show isn’t even letting black people get on screen before killing them now.
· “The drama, fighting, it’s stupid.” Kevin speaks for the audience!
This episode was SOOO disjointed, like two writers wrote two different episodes and then stitched them together. Which is weird because Robert Berens apparently has sole writing credit and he was one of the stronger scribes. One wonders if they needed to move all the pieces – I mean characters – of the season into place and had him do the stitching to get there. In which case he has my sympathies because I doubt even the day’s best writers could be up for such a task.

This entire episode is one big example of the flaw of telling and NOT showing when in media. Problems in the veil? Kevin TELLS us this, we’re never shown a rash of ghost outbreaks or MoL alarms going off or anything. Some random angel “showed another away”? So Castiel & others TELL us, never do we get to SEE this other person instructing Cas or others. Castiel TELLS us that he’s seeking a better way? Then why aren’t we SHOWN him using a non-lethal method like taking Bart’s grace away and letting his enemy live in a weakened state? Note also that ANY answer given (other than IITS) would end up being the same answers Bart gave to Cas as to why he was doing what he was doing. We’re TOLD the factions of angels are racing to find Metatron, so why are we SHOWN (earlier in the season) that the factions are just fighting amongst themselves. Though I’ll admit that if Berens was deliberately writing this episode as he did in protest of the way S9’s been going… it’s kind of brilliant in its critiques and demonstrations of the season’s problems. In the end, Bart is like the angelic politics this season – so pointless he could be removed without changing a thing or affecting the overall story.
If it wasn’t for Kevin & his mom, I would barely be able to remember this episode, and being forgettable is at times worse than being wretched.
And that’s what our esteemed writers had to say! I actually wrote a review of this episode showing how much I loved it. I spent a lot of time not only analyzing Sam and Dean, but I devoted half of the review the intricate and well crafted angel story. No one said Boo about the angel story. Too bad, because that’s the part that still makes me smile.
Here’s the photo gallery for the episode too. Lots of great memories! Until next week…

Alice Jester is the founder, editor-in-chief, head writer, programmer, web designer, site administrator, marketer, and moderator for The Winchester Family Business. She is a 30 year IT applications and database expert with a penchant for creative and freelance writing in her spare (ha!!) time. That’s on top of being a wife, mother of two active kids, and four loving (aka needy) pets.
Oh Nightsky did spot the ouja board? Guess I stand corrected. I’ll have to double check screenshots.
Don’t feel too bad they really didn’t bring a ouja board…they brought a talking board. 😉
Ah there’s the shot ([url]”http://www.homeofthenutty.com/supernatural/screencaps/displayimage.php?album=195&pid=238314#top_display_media”[/url]). I see now.
Actually, your comments are still appropirate. They [i]brought[/i] a ouija board (I have no idea if I’m spelling that right), but they didn’t [i]use[/i] it. They listened to the radio and coffee maker instead. I just liked that they remembered to bring it!
Yeah but never let it be said that I won’t admit when I’m wrong. 😉
This was a good episode but would have been stronger if it weren’t for the fact that the two stories being told just didn’t fit together. It was somewhat jarring when they transitioned back and forth between them. Good riddance to Bart; he was boring as a bad guy, and I was a little confused by the fact that Bart tried to have Castiel killed in an earlier episode and now they’re swapping war stories. This was one of many inconsistencies that started driving me batty as the second half of S9 progressed. Maybe the angel storyline would have been more interesting if they took the time with character development for Bart, Malachi, etc.?
Favorite line of the episode was from Kevin – “No, this is not happening. Didn’t spend months struggling to break through the veil just to get stuck listening to Dean Winchester having a self-pity session. Didn’t hear enough of those when I was alive.”
Favorite comment from the #WFBRewatch (well, Nate’s morning after rewatch) –
“Take me to my son” -Dean pulls out bottle of ashes. “here you go”.
Glad to see them tie up a lot of the Tran family story, but hope we get to see Kevin at some point in S10. Glad they’ve kind of left the background on Kevin’s father a mystery; he’s been brought up a couple of times, even by Crowley. Maybe it can be used as a story down the road.
As far as the demon teleport thing, I don’t think all demons can teleport. Ruby used a car in S4. I don’t think it was ever fully established in canon which demons can and can’t teleport. Looks like higher order demons (white or yellow eyes, knights of hell) or crossroad demons can, and it appears that some black eyed demons could and some couldn’t. But, then again, in MATEOTB, Lilith didn’t teleport when faced with the possibility of Michael showing up to protect Chuck; she smoked out. Though I think just about any demon could be summoned,as Ruby was by Sam at the end of S3. Someone did bring up the fact that they could just smoke out and cover a lot of ground that way. Probably one of those things they leave vague on purpose to give themselves flexibility, though I like Nightsky’s theory about it being a learned skill, similar to how ghosts learn to move things, possess people, appear to humans, etc., over a period of time.
Kevin Tran was wrong. The boys shouldn’t get OVER it. His advise should have been to get THROUGH it. As in talk to eachother and help each other. And try to see what the other is TRUELY thinking and saying. MAybe if both brothers had had acted like the adults they are and had an Adult conversatioon. Instead Dean basically had a temoer tantrum and became a demon. And Sam needs to learn to converse with people again. English is your native language,s weetie. Complete sentences are your friend. Sam needs someone in his life who WANTS to hear whats on his mind. He needs a real friend.
Angels and Angel politics bore me.
amyh
I love your post and second everything you’ve said. Thank you.
The first time I watched this when it aired I too believed the line to simply be, “No, this is not happening. Didn’t spend months struggling to break through the veil just to get stuck listening to Dean Winchester having a self-pity session. Didn’t hear enough of those when I was alive.” However, when I saw it this time around, I realized that the line actually includes Sam. Kevin says, “…listening to Sam and Dean Winchester self-pity session.” I rewound it and listened three times, and he does say Sam. I’m kinda glad for the inclusion of Sam as it shows that somewhere in there the writers realized that Sam to was having some self-pity. On the other hand, it is yet another indicator that they failed to include those moments on screen, rather just referred to them obliquely. Perhaps as one of the writers above noted, Berens was making a stab at some of the poor writing overall this season and trying to at least somehow address it, even if it is only via one comment that fails to fully register without careful listening as Kevin was fading in and out between the veil.
Hi Elle2 – very interesting, not picking a fight but I went back and listened a couple of times on Amazon Prime and didn’t hear the same thing you did – I listened carefully because Kevin can be a low-talker at times. I had pulled the original quote from SuperWiki but realize that’s not always accurate. So I went online and turned on closed captioning and this is what was captured on closed caption (I’m not yelling below – it was in caps on the screen)
Kevin: NO, THIS IS NOT HAPPENING.
DIDN’T SEND MONTHS STRUGGLING TO BREAK THROUGH THE VEIL
JUST TO GET STUCK LISTENING TO DEAN WINCHESTER
HAVING A SELF-PITY SESSION.
DIDN’T HEAR ENOUGH OF THOSE WHEN I WAS ALIVE.
I liked this episode better on second watch then I did the first tim around, but I was struck anew by the number of missed opportunities and awkward moments. Bart… he held such promise when we first saw him. Cut from the same loathsome bureaucratic mold as Naomi, Zachariah and Uriel, he could have been a terrific big bad, but he suffered terribly from a lack of attention. You can’t introduce a seemingly pivotal character and then ignore him completely for 8 episodes and expect us to accept boat loads of presumed back story that we haven’t seen when you bring him back. He was also wildly inconsistent in the very short time we saw him. He hates Cas and wants him dead; he like Cas and he is his long lost buddy; he hates Cas again because Cas has morals and is back to wanting him dead. :(.
I also am lamenting once again the lack of Sam POV. There were two golden opportunities in this one episode to give us some insight into what he’s been going through both of which were squandered. Sam COULD have had a nice moment with Ghost!Kevin where he apologized for killing him and showed us how much Kevin’s death has been weighing on him. Dean got this beautiful monologue… why wasn’t Sam as the actual instrument of Kevin’s death given something? And then we got that completely awkward moment when Sam rescued Mrs. Tran and it became apparent that he would have to be the one to tell her that her beloved son was dead and that he was the one who had inadvertently killed him. It was such a loaded set up and I remember thinking, “oh, this will be so hard for Sam to have to tell her. Will she be mad? Understanding? What will we learn about how this has been for Sam?” But we got a whole lot of nothing. Sam told Mrs. Tran, but neither one seemed to be affected much and I remember thinking that everyone seemed sooo OOC, reacting completely unrealistically given the situation. I mean, for a woman finding out her beloved son was killed by the people she entrusted him to she was REMARKABLY understanding… the tiger mom took it unbelievably well. It’s almost like the PTB decided that they had set up a situation that was perhaps too volatile and decided to deal with it by not dealing with it. I was very disappointed that there was not one single realistic moment between Sam and Mrs. Tran and quite frankly, the way they wrote and the way it played out didn’t make any sense. We keep hearing that Sam lashed out and said hurtful things and “lied” because he was hurt by what Dean had done to him. Understandable certainly, but why weren’t we ever shown that hurt? Why not take a loaded situation like the one between Sam and Mrs. Tran to SHOW us that Sam was hurt and in pain and suffering? It was tailor made to show us something about him, but it was totally wasted and ended up making the whole episode awkward and unrealistic in the process.
You bring up good points. If I had to choose, I would trim the scene of Dean & the Dork!Demon (a lot or completely) for more time with Sam & Mrs Tran. Then, well to be honest I’m not sure how needed was Dean’s solo-rant since I don’t recall it telling us anything we didn’t already know from earlier scenes in the season. However if we cut out or trim the bit with Candy’s ghost, then we could have a scene where Sam rants alone, then followed by Dean ranting alone and have extra pathos where they are telling themselves what the other really needs to hear.
Yes.. something like this! I don’t resent Dean his monologue to Kevin, I just wonder why TPTB felt it was so necessary that Dean got such a heart felt moment that A) told us nothing new and B) did not further the drama at all, but completely botched a pivotal scene between a woman whose son was killed being confronted by the person who killed him? Why was so much time spent on a nothing scene involving Dean and so little time spent fleshing out a completely crucial scene involving Sam and Mrs. Tran? It reminds me of the other dropped balls in recent years: Sam and his non-conversation with his grandfather at the hotel room. They set it up perfectly for Sam to have a heartfelt mo-mo with his grandfather… but instead they have Sam get up and walk away rather than talk?!?! Or when Cas pops in on Sam while he’s sitting on a park bench… it’s the perfect set up for a “meaningful conversation” but nope… the scene is cut off before Sam says one word. It’s annoying as hell and only seems to happen to Sam.
[quote]Though I’ll admit that if Berens was deliberately writing this episode as he did in protest of the way S9’s been going… it’s kind of brilliant in its critiques and demonstrations of the season’s problems.[/quote]
What makes you say this Nate? Have you heard something through the grapevine?
No that was just pure speculation on my part, especially comparing this one to the earlier Berens’ episodes. He did so much right in those other ones it makes you wonder whether the “wrong” in this one was deliberate or changed while filming or just him having an off day.
Maybe he was rushed?? Maybe someone messed about with his script after the fact? Who knows. I’ve been wondering if a large part of the problem can be traced back to the editing room. Bad editing can ruin a perfectly good, well-written script just as quickly as it can undermine beautiful and insightful directing and heartfelt acting (especially if that heartfelt acting ends up on the cutting room floor as apparently happened with Jared several times this season) So I wonder? Did Kripke have a hand in the editing to ensure a certain feel and consistency when he was showrunner? And is Carver more ‘hands off’ when it comes to this part of the process? Is there a standard editor now who edits all the episodes? Who makes the decisions of what gets cut when the episode is too long? I know some director’s like to edit their own episodes, but often they just don’t have the time to stay on set until the episode is ready for editing or can’t come back later to do it, so in many cases, like with Jensen’s episodes, the editing falls to someone else. Since season 6 I’ve noticed a shift away from the beautiful, carefully crafted and creatively edited episodes of seasons 1-5, to something more abrupt, choppy, and awkward in the more recent seasons. Several times during fight scenes I can barely see or understand what’s going on, even to the point that I can’t tell which character I am watching the editing is so rough and choppy. There are too many small, dark blips of film going by at too high a rate of speed for my brain to make sense of anything. It looks like a video game or worse an episode of Power Rangers. Compare that to an earlier fight scene like the one in Skin where we got to see everything and it seemed to play out in real time with large sections of uninterrupted film. Or in the finale… whose choice was it to have the two pivotal final scenes, the one between Cas and Metatron and the Dean death scene interspersed like that? Talk about awkward… both scenes became nearly unwatchable. Dean’s tragic death was diminished due to awful and annoying cuts back to Cas and Metatron. Was that supposed to be a ‘tension builder?’ It was more of an annoyance builder if you ask me. Compare that to Dean’s death in season 3, where we had to WATCH, without any annoying cuts away from the main action, as invisible Hell Hounds slowly ripped Dean’s skin apart. The editing was so much more effective in the earlier episodes.
I’ve been questioning the editing as well. i just finished watching s8 dvds and watched all the deleted scenes, and they deleted some very important stuff…sam stuff, dean stuff….i don’t get it….i understand the need to edit, but why in the world would they edit jared and Jensen scenes when they can edit nonsensical guest scenes or at the very least …if they’re going to pan shot dean, don’t do it for so long….cut it short so sam can get a little extra screen time…i mean when it’s necessary of course. 😀
I feel the same way I did the first time. I liked the episode though I didn’t get the back and forth with bart. my guess is that since he couldn’t kill cas the first time, he’d try a different approach? I don’t know, the angel stuff doesn’t interest me.
seems demons and reapers use cars…I mean ajay was driving a taxi…:o don’t really sweat the small stuff like which demon can teleport and which can’t.
really liked seeing mrs tran again….kevin to me represented the fan’s desire of wanting the boys to get back to good.
I said the first time around that sam was overwhelmed in this eppy, and based on his confession in the season finale, my belief stands. sam never walked away from dean, he simply had to get away…period. coming face to face with mrs tran, having to tell her by a simple touch of the hand and a pained expression that her son was dead(and by sam’s hands), coming face to face with kevin, kevin releasing sam of his guilt, and now knowing that he’s been having nightmares every night since kevin died….wanting to be close to his brother, but not being able to do it at this moment in time….the conflict and pain on sam’s face when he got to his room… I just wanted to give that boy a hug the first time I saw it and again the second time. I agree amy, if only sam had someone he can talk to …because right now dean ain’t hearing him…:(
as for kevin telling them to get over it…I don’t think getting over it means dropping the subject. if one is going to get over something, they have to deal with it. I think that was what kevin was getting at, the boys dealing with what’s happened so they can get over it. he said he’s heard everything so he’s aware of what’s going on now. if kevin represents the fans as I suspect he does, then he wants what we want…for the boys to just talk to ea other and really listen. to get it all out and deal with everything so they can finally move on.
but as with most of the writing these last seasons what is said is a bit ambiguous so that it can be misunderstood. this way dean can see it one way and sam can see it the other. dean can take kevin’s words to mean that sam should just drop everything, get over it and move on. that is exactly how I believe he took kevin’s words and when he turned to speak to sam, it’s my gut belief that dean would’ve said the worst thing he could say….kevin is right sam. you should just get over it. we need to just move on, especially given his speech to sam in the purge….trust me when I tell you that sam leaving the room when he did was a blessing. 😉
I have no doubt that sam wants to get over it, but right now he just can’t …it’s too big to just sweep under the rug. sam knows they have to deal with what’s happened, something dean is not able to do. not only that, yeah it’s great that kevin absolved sam of his guilt, but that ain’t stopping sam’s nightmares of killing kevin or is kevin’s absolution taking away sam’s guilt that he is obviously still reeling from. i’m glad kevin told sam that he knew it wasn’t him..i’m glad kevin did his part in trying to ease sam’s guilt, it’s important and it was necessary…but what’s more important and necessary to sam being able to get over it is dean….sam needs recognition from dean …he needs dean to understand his feelings …..he needs dean to own up to his actions and not just have dean declare he did the right thing and would do it all again.
anyway, I thought captives captured wonderfully the conflict within sam. sam is still held captive by his guilt and hurt which prevents him from being able to emotionally connect with dean as well as his inability to open up.
dean is still held captive by his belief that his way is the right way regardless of the consequences and his inability to own up to his mistakes where sam is concerned. it seems to me it all boils down to the fact that dean is really being held captive by his own belief that he’s just no good.
I really thought captives was a perfect representation of what the basic problem is concerning the boys.
i can’t help but think that carver intentionally saves the reveals at the end, not only for the surprise factor, but i really think and it’s only my opinion, but i really think he does it so that the show can be seen differently the second time around. if that’s the actual case, it’s really a brilliant strategy. because when you get that revelation at the end and you get an understanding of the character, then you want to rewatch….and when you do, you see things in a whole new perspective and everything you thought didn’t make sense….does. at least it’s like that for me. 😉